REVIVING FISH AND SHRIMP TRAWLING IN NIGERIA 1

Before the new millennium  Nigeria was a significant exporter of seafood particularly prawns and shrimps to Europe and North America from the catches made by fish trawlers on the Nigerian coastal waters.This is not so anymore. Nigeria actually imports shrimps and prawns now to meet its domestic demand.

The depletion of the crustaceans from the Nigerian ocean floor did not happen without warning to the Nigerian authorities. About three decades back, Indian and other Asian businessmen invaded the Nigerian waters with trawlers equipped with gadgetry to comb banned juvenile fish and shrimps from the sea bed with absolutely no control or enforcement of regulations from Nigerian Maritime Authority. The companies deployed illegal nets and other equipment to plunder the coastal floor hauling up juvenile fish, sea horses, turtles and tonnes of other marine life along with the shrimps and prawns they craved.

Fish Trawler

The biggest culprit in this immensely lucrative racket was without a doubt Ocean Fisheries Limited, then the backbone of the Churchgate Business Group. In its heydays Ocean Fisheries cavorted with the high and mighty in Government, owned 52 trawlers prowling Nigerian waters and was permitted to be the sole occupant of the Ikorodu Light Terminal Port in Lagos. Ocean Fisheries also operated the largest seafood processing facility at Odogunyan, 20 kilometres Northeast of Ikorodu.
Here Ocean Fisheries employed more than 5000 women and girls to process fish and shrimps for export to France and the United States. These workers were paid less than a dollar a day. Not only was the fish and shrimps caught free in the Nigerian waters without obeying international regulations, Ocean Fisheries would not pay tax to the Nigerian Government even on the seafood exports. Mr. Mike Hartley, an American and then Managing Director of Ocean Fisheries did say that "Nigeria offers the best free lunches".